Unless you make minimum wage, then the best way to put money in your wallet is to legally steal it from the other guy who's just getting by making $3 an hour more than you. But then again, the guy making $3 an hour more owes you that $3, right? It's the only just and moral thing to do to make things equally. -- Logan, Memphis, TN

Logan and so many do not understand that the problem is not the fellow making $3 more an hour, or even $300 more an hour... it is the ones making $5000 more an hour! (Yes, do the math.) When people like the CA execs (who made $300,000 an hour!) are allowed to lie & cheat to achieve that, then it IS taking money out of everyone else's pocket.-- Anonymous, Reston, VA US

The minimum wage seems fair...until you realize prices rise to compensate (harming the poor and affecting us all), small businesses close, and other problems don't increase the standard of living for the poor which is the intent of a minimum wage. People making $5.15/hr get an instant 14% raise to $5.85/hr, then to $6.55/hr a year later (12%) and finally to $7.25/hr another year later (another 11%), all at our expense. And people making more than $7.25/hr? They get screwed out of $2.10/hr. And the value of the minimum wage is decreasing. (www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html)-- Joe, Rochester, MI

AMEN!! People acting on a resource create wealth. Government acting on money creates, waste inefficiency, and dependency. We must accept a certain amount inefficiency in necessary government activities, such as defense, in order to ensure effectiveness. But otherwise people and business know best how to use THEIR OWN MONEY! Beware the noise of a decrier of wealth, it is the lepers bell of the approaching looter! Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it. I guess we know how A, Reston got his.-- helorat, Milton

Reston you never cease to amaze me (you are a jealous one aren't you? or socialist? Ah...but I repeat my self).
The point of this quotation is that you cannot tax yourself into prosperity...people who spend money create jobs producing, etc. the things they purchase.
Now, as far as the guys making $5K an hour, I say more power to them...someone produces the things they purchase too...or did you think homes, yachts, etc. just appear out of nothing (ah, but that is the socialist view huh?)
And yes, there is fraud and theft at higher levels and that should be punished...just as welfare and SS fraud should be prosecuted as well....as well as everywhere in between. Agree?
Minimum wages are intended to be an entry level wage...NEVER a perm. full support wage. If people don't like their wages, which is what the market will pay for their skills and contribution, let them gain new skills and abilities so they can make contributions that are more valued. That's the way its done. And I'll betcha that is precisely how you do it too huh? The problem is, you believe those you wan to "help" are unable to grow and help themselves...racist and elitist to the core Sir...to the core.-- Michael, Houston

Mussolini would have been proud of Mr. Feulner. And the Heritage Foundation.-- Dick, Fort Worth

Typical Heritage Foundation rationale. Sounds good, but is just idle rhetoric. Dick and Reston have it right. It appeals to a certain greedy class. -- Jack, Green, OH

Hi Reston, Dick, and Jack
How, how about you guys send me half of what you make. Personally, though I can't prove it, I think you made it illegally, or at least immorally because you have too much in my book.
So, just send it in...in fact, add about 20% to that for you guys being so greed you have to be asked (ie told).
Don't worry...it will go to a good cause of my choosing...and I will only take about 50-60% off for handling fee. You understand don't you?
Geez.-- Michael, Houston

The point of government is not to put money in your wallet or to leave it there. The point is to take it so politicians can buy Reston's, Dick's, and Jack's votes.-- Ken, Allyn, WA

Nothing buys votes like promising to cut taxes, as Republicans and their Heritage Foundation have done so well. How does that apply to me, not a Republican, Ken? I don't get your point. I have always been fortunate enough to pay more in taxes than I receive from my government and I'm thankful for that. Many people are not so lucky. I accept my social security, but of course I pay taxes on that too. -- Jack, Green, OH

At least with a tax cut they're buying my vote with my own money, and they're not buying someone else's vote with my money. And, yes, we're all "on the take" as the saying goes. Also, how is it that people trust the government to be more charitable than they trust themselves? If you want to give more of your income to the poor, feel free. If you get to keep more of your income, you have more to give.-- Ken, Allyn, WA

Gladstone: “Money should fructify in the pockets of the people”-- Jack, Brussels (Belgium) - but I'm British !

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Komrads Dick, Jack, and Reston, how on earth could leaving my money in my pocket be in any way greedy? Reston, this is not a zero sum game, if someone is good enough to make $5000 or a million dollars an hour, it doesn't cost me or anyone else a dime. You socialists never seem to learn anything about money except to turn it over to politicians.-- jim k, austin

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One of the most fundamental principles of the states united (once upon a time in a land far far away) in forming a Constitutional Republic was each individual was a supreme noble and his servants were formally organized under the banner government. Once the servant forcibly took the noble laborer's fruit with impunity, that noble nation ceased to exist. The nobly principled Republic was replaced by a tyrannical theocracy fully infected by gratefully substantivless despots. I was once personally involved in a case, and knew of other's air tight cases that could prove that the 16th Amendment was never legally ratified. The tyrannical theocracy infesting this land would not allow such cases in its courts. Beyond that, the newly re-defining of income to be other than a corporate excise demonstrates that the infestation is complete, this is no longer a government of, by or for the people (individual sovereigns).-- Mike, Norwalk

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Money left in pockets is useless. Money is good for only one thing okay maybe two: spending and investing. Maybe we get people to keep their money in their pocket and just sit at home in their rocking chairs until we all die. Circulating money is the driver of the economy and of peoples lives and activity. Without activity we might as well all just be dead. What a stupid quote and so sad so many fall for such shallow stupidity!-- Waffler, Smith

This quote said nothing about who is taking the money out of or whose pocket. Money is taken by every shyster that comes down the road. Ho do you think the rich get rich if it is not by taking money out of your pocket in the form of high prices, profits and cornering the market on the things that you want!-- Waffler, Smith

-- Anon

Waffler - The quote is not about burying money moron. -- Blue

Blue- I think that waffler is intentionally obtuse. No one could possibly be that stupid. Dick Mussolini would be proud of Obama. They are two peas in a pod. Jack it appeals to those that have a brain.-- warren, olathe

Well made point Ken. Something to ponder. Are we "on the take" because we choose to be or because we have been duped and trapped into that position?-- Anon

Anon, we have been manipulated into that position. It is pure social engineering designed to put us on the leash the policy maker wants on us. It is not about government "caring" about us, it is about the power to control, to make us dance like a puppet. Tax breaks, deductions, and all of those so-called benefits are like an addictive drug and and the tax man is the dealer. It is very hard to kick the habit, but we must try. The cost of the addiction is the freedom of self determination.-- Ken, Allyn, WA

Ken, addiction is a better way to put than trapped, and now that I see it that way it's easier to understand the trapped part. The dealer denies anyone who goes through rehabilitation (re-education) to refuse the drug and begin a new life. Raising taxes a lot and then cutting them a little is where is playing on the cravings of the addict thus the puppet dance. Thanks Ken, your input is appreciated.-- Anon

Waffler, fiscal law / economics 101 is that when the noble laborer exchanges his labors for a more convenient than barter unit of exchange (no excise, no income, no profit, etc. - keeping it in his own pocket), and then uses that unit to secure produced wealth, all benefit. When the god like master owns the fruits of the noble laborer, and extracts at his discretion any given percentage of the fiscal fruit, the master spends the vast majority on non-productive services to the detriment of the overall economy (no wealth being produced).-- Mike, Norwalk

Dick, WHAT ? ? ? What a stupid, substantiveless, idiotic statement. Are you saying Mussolini was not a fascist / socialist ? Are you saying Mussolini thought it better that each person should be considered an individual sovereign with inalienable rights ? Are you saying Mussolini thought that it was better that people keep all the money they earned and spent it on what they thought was most beneficial ? As per the quote, what is the association between the government leaving money in people's wallet and Mussolini (Mussolini was all about taking money out of people's wallets by force, to support his personal brand of a statist theocracy) ?-- Mike, Norwalk

According to the Fed money is not ours, but is on loan to us by the government. Federal Reserve note. Waffler, Dick, and Reston agree the government has the right to take it all back from us as it is not ours to begin with.-- cal, lewisville, tx

Waffler, your mis-direction government lies continue enslaving the god/government's helots, serfs and slaves. That vacuum sound you hear is the occupying statist theocracy infesting this land's sucking all the money out of the system by implementing socialism. Government regulation, corporate banking and taxes like property and the 2nd plank of the communist manifesto are primary causes of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The statist theocracy's direct socialistic involvement (in all its many ways) is directly responsible for the elimination of the middle class.-- Mike, Norwalk